Daly City man, 84, pleads not guilty to trying to kill his former doctor

By Erin Ivie eivie@bayareanewsgroup.com

Posted:
05/15/2014 03:30:39 PM PDT

Updated:
05/16/2014 06:53:47 AM PDT

REDWOOD CITY -- An 84-year-old Daly City man pleaded not guilty Thursday to shooting at one of his former doctors because he thought the physician made him sick with pain medication.

Raymond Iwase pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated attempted murder and felony assault with a firearm in the April 23 incident at a Daly City medical center.

Bail for the man, who has been in jail since his arrest, was also set for the first time at the hearing: $500,000. He faces a life sentence if convicted of premeditated attempted murder.

In the courtroom, Iwase limped to the stand and leaned against the glass window, struggling through his words as he acknowledged the judge's statements.

"Given the nature of the charges, and Mr. Iwase's age, we should do (the preliminary hearing) sooner rather than later," Judge John Runde said amid protests regarding bail from the prosecutor. "And I believe it is not due process to deny bail in non-homicide cases."

Iwase, an Armed Services veteran who served for 20 years in the Air Force before going on to work for the United States Postal Service for another two decades, has lived in the Bay Area his entire life with no prior record, defense attorney Eric Hove said. When the judge questioned Hove about the man's sanity, the attorney declined to answer due to attorney-client privilege.

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Iwase made only one comment when interviewed by investigators the day after the shooting, stating "'I'm an old man. There's nothing you should worry about," San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

The physician said when he saw Iwase in the medical center hallway at 1500 Southgate Avenue that day, he recognized him but could not place him. Investigators later found that Iwase visited the doctor within the last couple years, though his illness was not immediately laid out in charging documents.

The general practitioner gave the man a shot to help him manage unspecified pain, then referred him to a pain management specialist for further treatment. The doctor never saw him again until he showed up armed at his workplace, watching people in the second floor hallway until the physician walked into the hallway to deliver paperwork.

The doctor noticed a silver revolver in Iwase's hand just as he said "You gave me a shot and it made me sick," investigators said. The physician reportedly tried to calm Iwase down as he became more and more agitated but decided to run down the hallway and duck into a stairwell as a single shot rang out.

The Daly City SWAT team responded and eventually found bullet fragments in the hallway where the encounter occurred. The man was arrested eight hours later after walking to his Plymouth Circle home, where a handgun and ammunition were recovered by police.